DR. TRAVILLA, coming out the next morning upon that part of the gallery
where their party had spent the previous evening, found Mr. Lilburn and
the captain pacing to and fro, chatting and laughing as if enjoying
their promenade.
“You see we are ahead of you, Harold,” said the captain, when morning
greetings had been exchanged.
“Yes; very much?” asked Harold.
“Enough for a stroll around this great building to note its size and
architectural features. ’Tis an immense pile and well arranged for
comfort and convenience.”
“And in a delightful situation,” supplemented Mr. Lilburn.
“I agree with you both and am entirely willing to spend some days or
weeks in it if you wish,” returned Harold; “provided the situation
agrees with my patients, as I hope and expect it will,” he added.
Just then Lucilla, Evelyn and Grace added themselves to the little
group, and pleasant morning greetings were exchanged, the captain
bestowing a fatherly caress upon each daughter—Evelyn being as
affectionately greeted as either of the other two.
A few moments later they were joined by the rest of their party, and
all descended together to the dining-room to partake of an excellent
breakfast. Soon after leaving the table they were out for the day’s
sight-seeing and adventures. They visited parks, gardens, a museum, an
ostrich farm, and a number of other attractive places, then took a fine
drive along the beach, returning in time for the evening meal at their
pleasant house of entertainment.
So delightful did they find Hotel del Coronado that they lingered there
for a week.
Then they left it for San Diego, which they found wonderfully
beautiful, with one of the finest harbors in the world. It was
delightful to sit and gaze upon the blue, sunlit bay, and breathe the
delicious sea breeze.
Then there were most enjoyable drives to be taken, visiting various
attractive spots within a few miles’ distance.
One day they drove to Lakeside, twenty-two miles away, where they ate
a good dinner at the hotel, then wandered across the mesa in its rear,
and had a lovely view of its little lake.
Another day they drove into the Monte, a large park of a thousand
acres. There were great trees—elders, willows, sycamores and live-oaks
with enormous trunks, with plenty of flowers underneath them and upon
the rocks, wild peonies, with variegated leaves, wild galiardia, tiny
starry white flowers, pretty forget-me-nots, and others too numerous to
mention. Many kinds of beautiful ferns, also.
There seemed to be a different drive for every day in the week, all
beautiful and enjoyable. So a week passed most pleasantly, then
they took the Surf line from San Diego to Los Angeles. It was a
seventy-mile ride, but with so much that was interesting to see and
gaze upon, and such delicious air to breathe, that it did not seem a
long or wearisome trip. There was the great ocean, with its curling,
sparkling waves, and seals and porpoises frolicking in the water, gulls
circling above them, and from the ground flocks of birds starting up
in affright at the approach of the train. Then when the train carried
them away from the view of the ocean there were the wonderful groves of
great trees, carpets of wild flowers, and the towns of Santa Ana and
Anaheim.
“What is the name of the place we are going to, papa?” asked Ned, as
they drew near the end of their short journey.
“’Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Angeles,” replied the captain, gravely
enough but with a gleam of fun in his eye.
“What a long name!” cried Ned. “I should think they would have to make
it shorter sometimes when they’re in a hurry.”
“Yes, sometimes it is called ‘The City of the Angels,’ but even that
is too long; so it commonly goes by name of Los Angeles.”
“Oh, that’s better,” said Ned; “just a long enough name, I think.”
They found Los Angeles a handsome city, environed by gardens filled
with beautiful flowers. They spent a few days there, then went on
to Pasadena, nine miles from Los Angeles, hearing that it was eight
hundred feet higher and the air much drier; information which drew from
Dr. Harold the opinion that it would be much more beneficial for his
invalids.
They found it a very Eden-like place, situated in the beautiful San
Gabriel Valley, and at the foot of the Sierra Madre range of mountains.
“Pasadena, ‘the Crown of the Valley,’” murmured Grandma Elsie
delightedly, from the carriage window, as they drove to their hotel.
“It looks a veritable paradise,” said Violet; “it reminds me of a
description of Pasadena I heard given by a lady at the Hotel del
Coronado. She said one would find plenty of flowers in bloom, but at
the same time you would need to wear flannels and sealskin sacks; there
would be snow-capped mountains and orange blossoms; the trees are green
all the year and you go outdoors in December to get warm; where rats
build in the trees and squirrels live in the ground with owls.”
“And where the boys climb up hill on burros and slide down hills on
wheels,” laughed Grace. “I hope we shall see some of those funny things
and doings.”
“I hope we shall,” said Lucilla, “and I particularly want to see the
hedges of calla-lilies, geraniums and heliotrope.”
“Well, I think we are likely to stay long enough for you all to see
whatever there is to be seen,” said the captain.
“Yes, I am glad we don’t have to hurry away,” remarked Grace in a
blithe and cheery tone.
“As we all are, I think,” said Grandma Elsie. “I don’t know who could
fail to desire to stay awhile in so lovely a place as this.”
“And we will have nothing to call us away until we are all ready to
go,” said Captain Raymond.
But their arrival at their house of entertainment now brought the
conversation to a close.
They found Pasadena so charming that they lingered there week after
week. The town was beautiful, protected on three sides by mountain
ranges and surrounded by groves and gardens, trees and hedges. There
were roses clambering to the tops of houses and covered by tens of
thousands of blossoms, and there were passion vines completely covering
the arbors. There were hedges made of the honeysuckle, the pomegranite
and the heliotrope. Marengo Avenue they found lined on both sides by
the beautiful pepper tree.
There is a fine hotel called The Raymond, but it was closed at this
time; so that our friends, though attracted by the name, could see
only the grounds and the outside of the buildings. It is set upon a
hill commanding a fine view, and in the winter season is filled to
overflowing, but it is always closed in April. They found the hill on
which it stands an excellent point of view of the country, and itself
a mountain of bloom, color and fragrance; and it was evident that the
views from the windows and broad verandas—views of orchards, gardens,
pretty villas, purple foothills and snowy ranges, must be fine indeed.
“What a beautiful place it is,” exclaimed little Elsie when they had
gone about the house, viewing it and grounds from side to side. “I wish
it was open so we could stay here. Papa, it has our name; are the folks
who own it related to us?”
“I don’t know, daughter, but I hardly think so; it is not an uncommon
name,” replied the captain.
“It’s a good name; I don’t want any better,” said Ned sturdily.
“I’m glad you are satisfied, and I hope you will never do anything
to disgrace it,” said his father, with a gratified smile and an
affectionate pat of the small hand which happened to be held in his at
the moment.
Our party found a great deal to interest them in and about Pasadena.
There were the fine hotels, the pleasant boarding houses, the Public
Library in the town, and three miles away the old mission of San
Gabriel. They made various trips in the vicinity of the town—to Mt.
San Antonio, ten miles away, but none too far for a little trip, they
thought; also to Mt. San Jacinto, whose height is twelve thousand feet
above the Pacific.
Our friends found Pasadena so delightful that they lingered there for
some weeks. Then they passed on in a southerly direction till they
reached the lovely city of Santa Barbara, where they lingered still
longer, finding the place itself wonderfully attractive and the many
drives in the vicinity delightful. They found that there were as many
as twenty-eight distinct and beautiful drives, and almost every day
they tried one or more of them. They greatly enjoyed the scenery—the
mountains, the valleys, the beautiful villas, with their trees,
shrubs, vines and flowers, one grape-vine in especial with a trunk
eight inches in diameter, with foliage covering ten thousand square
feet, and which they were told yielded in one year twelve thousand
pounds of grapes.
Another drive took them to the lighthouse, where from the balcony
there was a fine view of the fields below, the blue sea beyond them,
and the blue sky overhead. There was hardly anything which the ladies
of our party and little Elsie enjoyed more than the sight of the vast
profusion of roses—hundreds of varieties and vines covering many feet
of arbor or veranda.
Santa Barbara proved a place hard to leave, and they lingered there for
a number of weeks, all of them—especially those who had been on the
invalid list-feeling that they were constantly gaining in health and
strength. News from their homes was favorable to their stay; everything
seemed to be going on very well without them; so they yielded to the
fascinations of this Western fairy land and lingered weeks longer than
they had intended when they came.
The summer was nearly over; they began to think it time to be on the
move toward home, and after a little talk on the subject decided to
start the next day, go on to San Francisco, tarry there a few days,
then travel eastward to their homes.
Evelyn was the most eager for the start; it seemed so long since she
had last seen her young husband, and they were hoping he might get a
furlough and spend some weeks with her at Crag Cottage, their pretty
home on the Hudson.
They tarried in San Francisco long enough to acquaint themselves with
all its beauties, then wended their way eastward as fast as the cars
could carry them. They felt it still too early in the season for an
immediate return to their southern homes, but they scattered to various
places in the north-some to visit relatives, some to the seaside, while
several accepted an invitation from Evelyn to spend some weeks at Crag
Cottage. She knew that her aunt, Elsie Leland, was already there, and
had everything in order for their reception. Grandma Elsie, Dr. Harold
Travilla, Grace Raymond and her sister, Lucilla, were the others who
accepted the invitation. But Captain Raymond, Violet and their two
younger children expected to visit for some weeks one of Long Island’s
seaside resorts.
Max had written to Evelyn that he hoped for a furlough that would
enable him to join her at their cottage and spend with her the few
weeks she would care to stay there; and she was looking forward to that
reunion with eager delight, while journeying from far-off California to
the home of her childhood.
“Father and Mamma Vi,” she said to them as they journeyed through the
State of New York, “stop with me at Crag Cottage and make at least
a little visit there. I think you will see Max if you do. I have a
feeling that he will be there to meet us on our arrival.”
“Thank you, daughter,” returned Captain Raymond, with a look of
pleasure, “I shall be happy to accept your invitation if it suits my
wife to do so. What do you say, Violet, my dear?”
“That I accept gladly! I shall be pleased to see both Max and the
pretty cottage; as well as to be Eva’s guest for a few days.”
“And what will Elsie and I do?” asked Ned, with a roguish look. “Go on
to the seashore by ourselves?”
“No, little brother, we wouldn’t any of us be willing to trust you to
do that,” laughed Evelyn, “and large as you are, I think the cottage
can be made to hold you two in addition to the others.”
“Oh, good! I’m glad of that, for I always enjoy a visit to Crag
Cottage,” cried Ned, clapping his hands in glee.
“And I hope you will be often there visiting your brother and sister,”
said Evelyn, smiling affectionately and patting the hand he had laid
upon the arm of her seat.
Her invitation was not extended to other members of the party, as
their plans were already made. Mr. and Mrs. Lilburn had already left
them to visit their relatives at Pleasant Plains, and Mr. and Mrs.
Horace Dinsmore had announced their intention of visiting theirs in the
neighborhood of Philadelphia.
“We will reach New York presently,” remarked the captain, after a
little, “and there we will leave the train and go aboard the Dolphin,
if, as I have every reason to expect, she is lying at the dock there;
and we can all journey up to Crag Cottage in her.”
“Which will be a pleasant change from travelling on land in a car,”
remarked Lucilla.
“You will go with us, will you not, Chester?” asked Evelyn.
“Thank you,” he returned heartily; “I must leave my wife with you
and hurry on home to attend to some professional matters that I have
neglected too long in my desire to fully recover my health.”
“Be careful that you don’t lose it again,” said Dr. Travilla, warningly.
“Oh, yes, for your wife’s sake be careful,” urged Lucilla, a look of
anxiety on her usually bright, happy face.
“You may trust me for that, I think,” Chester returned laughingly.
A few hours later they reached New York, and as they left the train
Evelyn was overjoyed to find herself in her husband’s arms. His
furlough had been granted. He had already been aboard the Dolphin and
was able to assure them that everything there and at Crag Cottage was
in order for their reception.
They had already bade good-by to Mr. and Mrs. Horace Dinsmore, who
were going on at once to Philadelphia, Chester with them as far as
that city, so the party for the Dolphin went aboard of her without any
unnecessary delay, and immediately journeyed in her up to their desired
haven.
It was a short voyage, made doubly pleasant by the happy reunion of
near and dear ones, for it was a great joy to Max to have his wife
again by his side, and father, young stepmother, sisters and brother
close at hand; all showing delight in the reunion and great affection
for him. The presence of Grandma Elsie and her son, the good and
lovable physician, was no drawback upon the felicity of any one of them.
And a most joyous and affectionate greeting awaited them all on
reaching their destination, Mr. and Mrs. Leland and their sons and
daughters evidently delighted at their arrival; a natural consequence
of the many ties of kinship existing among them.
Mrs. Leland had done her part well; she had capable servants under her,
the house was in beautiful order, and the table well served. Several
days passed most delightfully, mostly on shore, though some little
trips were taken in the yacht. Then the Raymonds began to talk of
leaving, but were urged to stay on a little longer.